RE: Religion had good intentions, but nature has better
November 25, 2014 at 5:52 pm
(This post was last modified: November 25, 2014 at 5:54 pm by FatAndFaithless.)
(November 25, 2014 at 5:46 pm)Confused Ape Wrote:(November 25, 2014 at 5:32 pm)FatAndFaithless Wrote: I don't see how that's an "atheist" ideology, that's some bizarre supremacy complex and a violently anti-theistic viewpoint. They can say "atheists should do this and not that" all they like, but there is no atheist 'doctrine' to which they can appeal. If they're trying to form a clubhouse of maniacal douchebags that happen to be atheist, fine, but its the 'maniacal douchebag' part that is driving their actions.
Religion in itself is neutral.
Erm..not really, no. Just about every religion has pronouncements about how to act morally. Those are, by definition, either moral, amoral, or immoral. That's how people can be motivated by religion to do certain things, because they get the instruction (and/or justification) from their religious ideas. Are there bad people that would hate gay people anyway without ever hearing of the old testament? Yup. But there are plenty more that have their bigotry or hatred justified or enhanced because their belief system provides them a magical reason to feel the way they do, and especially with children, growing up with that justification in place could warp an otherwise neutral viewpoint into whatever the specific sect wants.
There are no pronouncements of atheism, or any priests or captains or martyrs. If people want to try and stick a bunch of not atheism stuff onto atheism, then yes that would become an ideology, but it would no longer be atheism, it would be something else.
Like the example of communism given earlier, it did indeed have a more or less atheist requirement, but nobody in their right mind would point to communism and say "that's what you get if you follow atheism", because
1) it's not.
2) the bolted-on beliefs have nothing to do with atheism, just how the atheists that formed the system felt about certain topics to begin with.
So, your maniacal douchebag group you mentioned. Are they atheists? Yup. Do any of their ideas besides "I don't believe in god" count as "atheism"? Nope.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
- Thomas Jefferson